Reviews (1)

No regrets in this purchase
I found this book very informative and an enjoyable easy read. It gives detailed instructions on how to proceed in applying
for federal aid and just about everything involved in preparing for college. It also gives several free scholarship search engines online that are not scams. I would have preferred a little more help with how to obtain these scholarships, but overall I thought it was an excellent book. It appears that we will need to purchose another book on scholarships. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

a page-turner!
A one-of-a-kind book! I've never seen any other book on the shelves that discusses this topic. Certainly not as thoroughly as Mr. Paradise covers it. It's obvious he's done his homework. The research and time spent talking to the experts is also apparent.
I'm a librarian and I read a couple of hundred books a year so I don't waste any time on books I don't find interesting. I couldn't put this book down! Despite the catchy title this is a fun book to read. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in keeping abreast of current events of anyone who just wants to read a darned good book.

a stunner
the definitive guide to commercial counterfitting available on the market.

Paul really delivers the goods in this page turning expose'. ... Read more

Book Description

Building on the scholarship of the highly successful 2003 volume, Dollar Overvaluation and the World Economy, this book assesses the progress that has been made to date in correcting the sizable misalignments of key national currencies that developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The book examines whether a dollar decline is needed for the United States and the rest of the world to achieve sustainable current account positions and what the impact of a major dollar realignment would be on economies around the world. It also features new ideas on the effectiveness of intervention in moving exchange rates in a desired direction. The book brings together perspectives from government, industry, and academia. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Intellectual Capital Review
It is interesting in today's world to see books that remond us all the present and future value of intellectual capital. It is unfortunate the book does not focus on the de-valuation of intellectual capital when downsizing occurs in an organisation. The cost of replacing the intellectual capital does never figure in anual reports, it is 'hidden' by other standard costs, such as employee related costs, equipments, etc. We need to establish a quantification method, so that intellectual capital replacement is thoroughly investigated. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A Good Read!
James Buchan has written an enthralling book about the history and impact of money. He treats money as an evolving concept from early Greek writings to symbolic references in art. He considers the ability of money to speak for human desire, including its role in the primary needs to wage war and to make love. The book's style shifts from detailed historical review to literary criticism, so it is not always an easy read, but it is always fascinating. We at getAbstract recommend this book to executives who want to learn more about money's intrinsic power. Read it to learn how money shapes your world in ways you may not have considered.

In the top five of the most important books I've ever read.
James Buchan is not apt to win friends or influence people in the world of commerce with the views put forth in this book, but he has won my undying gratitude. His strong opinions caused me to reflect deeply on the meaningof money in my own life and my responsibilties towards it. While I disagreestrongly with some of his conclusions, I admire both his scholarship andhis literary skills. My hat is off to this masterpiece of misarguria.

money, still a mystery, but a nice overview.
James Buchan has produced a history of money: thoroughly researched, scholarly,and accurate; But also, highly opinionated, literate and a joy to read. This is not the money of the economists or the financiers...this is the money of the writers and artists..... it probably wont help you make any money, but it will give you a lot to think about. Highly recommended.

Fascinating
This book is hard to categorize...is it philosophy, economics, history or essay? It has to be all of these, and while it is not fully satisfactory in any of these categories, never quite reaching its stated and implied aims, it is a fascinating read. For one thing it is beautifully written, in a rich meandering prose, which gives the seemingly dull subject a shine like the gold around which the tale is woven. There are fascinating characters, stories and vignettes, and the book suceeds in at least stirring the reader to question the nature of money, even if it does not provide answers. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

This book has taught me how to sell and run my buisness.
The book is packed full of information on how to set up shop, keeping track of sales, buying inventory and much, much more.It tells you how to get space in a shop. The questions and answers. It tells all sorts of ways to run airbrushing from t-shirts to cake decorating! I recomend this book to everyone from begginer to pro! ... Read more

Book Description

Building a Modern Financial System provides a unique "inside" account of all aspects of the Indonesian financial system over the past three decades, indicating policies adopted, their effects, and the pressures that influenced policy choices. Indonesia provides an interesting example of financial modernization: it was considered a "hopeless case" in the mid 1960s, after whichit maintained a balanced fiscal policy and largely unrestrained foreign capital movements up until the recent upheavals of the mid 1990s. ... Read more

Book Description

How will the private sector react to different governmental policies? What policies will produce the most desirable outcomes? These two volumes bring together major contributions to a new theory of macroeconomic policy that analyzes which policies are credible or politically feasible, topics that are central to the practical policy debate but that traditional theory cannot address.

Instead of looking at policy as an end product, the contributors approach policy as an ongoing process of revised goals, changes in tactics, and political pressures. They consider what kinds of incentives, within different institutional settings, drive policymaking and the behavior of policymakers. This approach allows more informed answers to questions of which policies are credible and which are politically feasible. It explains why certain monetary and fiscal policies get implemented, and provides insights into situations that occur repeatedly in macroeconomic policy such as the bias toward government deficits, partisan competition, and central bank independence.

Volume 1 examines problems of policy credibility caused by incentives to deviate from announced policy. Volume 2 looks at feasibility problems caused by political pressures generated by the electoral process, the politics of the public debt, issues of the redistribution of wealth, and conflict over the need for economic reforms. Sections are arranged so that the first chapter introduces a topic while those that follow expand on it. The editors provide substantial introductions to each volume as well as short comments at the beginning of each section within the volumes. ... Read more

Book Description

The thesis of Special Privilege is that the government grants special privileges to the elite members of the financial sector of the economy that violate fundamental principles of both democracy and free enterprise. Because these special privileges pervert the free market, they must inevitably lead to a crash. Like a needle in the arm to a drug addict, special privileges can make things look temporarily better and, yet, guarantee an even worse future collapse. The book explores several potential bona fide reforms---each of which involves the removal, one way or another, of six categories of special privilege.

Jack Gargan, former Chairman of the Reform Party, retired financial planner, and, himself, an author of 5 financial books says of Special Privilege:"In a scholarly but easily readable style, Vincent LoCascio strips away all the technical mumbo-jumbo of the bankers' jargon and lays bare the awful truth about the American monetary system. When the inevitable and cataclysmic crack of the U.S. economy occurs, people will single out this book saying, 'Oh, if only we could have used this to awaken the American public to the devastating role the banking system would play in the destruction of our nation.' Sadly, for the very reason the author spells out, I am afraid we are doomed to experience the coming disaster like lemmings racing to the sea-cliffs, rather than to initiate the relatively simple solutions." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Heads, Money Center Bankers Win; Tails, Taxpayers Lose!
If you think you cannot understand the banking system and how it affects you, give this book a try. Technical terms are avoided. Explanations are made in simple ways. A variety of clear methods are used to illustrate key points.

If you already think you know all you need to know about banking, think again. Mr. LoCascio has new observations about old problems that will cause you to stop and think. And hopefully to act!

During the worst of the Savings and Loan bailout, the Lesser Developed Country debacles, and commercial real estate collapses of the past 20 years, articles in the financial press repeatedly pointed out that many bankers were playing fast and loose with taxpayer money to take a chance to make it big for themselves, at little personal risk. Today, little is said about this problem. Special Privilege reopens the debate by pointing out that those old problems may be small potatoes compared to what could be ahead for us without fundamental reform in the banking system. Like a lake rapidly filling with gasoline, the potential explosion just keeps growing. Although no one can predict the spark, Mr. LoCascio describes a major stock market collapse as a potential cause.

With a title like Special Privilege, you might think this is a liberal view of economics that doesn't reflect the underlying needs of capitalism. Actually, the book attacks the current banking system as being harmful to free markets, holding back capitalism, and undermining our democratic traditions by letting a select group benefit at the expense of everyone else.

Special Privilege is the clearest book I have read on the inherent structural weaknesses in the U.S. banking system. These weaknesses are becoming greater as they are pushed to new extremes by decreasingly imprudent bank lending practices, at a time when the banking system is in a very weakened state due to excessive lending to poor credit risks, a national recession, and inappropriate regulation.

In the book, you get a good sense of how banking worked (and didn't work) before the current system was established, and how many safety underpinnings have been removed. Like a hereditary group of nobility, money center bankers have been turned loose to compete recklessly for deposits, make bad loans for high fees and interests rates, and degrade the value of the currency safe in the knowledge that the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and the Federal Government will "solve" any problems that crop up. In this system, insolvent lenders are propped up with new loans and banks earn outsized fees for accommodating this.

Mr. LoCascio does a good job of describing the special privileges that bankers have available to them, and the harm that is inevitably created as a result. He uses a series of fictional dialogues involving two bankers to help put you inside of the temptation that faces bankers in such a system.

The only thing I thought that the book was missing was an explanation of how the U.S. banking system sets up the whole world for increased frequency and degree of volatility in values of currencies, stocks, real estate, and other assets affected by the free flow of capital. While we are still recovering from the dot-com bust, the seeds are being sown for the next collapse as we all watched Enron's and Argentina's financial structures collapse.

If these costs came home to bear in the form of higher rates on bank loans or losses by bank investors, that would be the normal working of capitalism. The challenge here is that our banking system has much of the crony capitalism in it that we have condemned in other countries (like Japan) . . . and the costs of failure are ultimately passed along to taxpayers through new Federal borrowing.

While Mr. LoCascio's suggestions for change certainly warrant consideration, I suspect that reform will more likely succeed if financial incentives are created to go to a sounder system while the current incentives are gradually removed.

If you are already pretty familiar with past issues about the banking system, you will probably find this book a little on the repetitive side. Feel free to skip ahead to chapter IX where all of the key points are repeated. If you want more on a particular issues, you can then read just the chapter that deals with that area.

Monetary perfidy exposed
Regarding peace protesters, Al Haig is reported to have once said, "Let them march all they want, as long as they pay their taxes." Alan Greenspan could well say something similar about the Fed's control over the nation's money -- if, that is, he ever got around to saying anything intelligible at all.

In this volume financial planner and consultant Vince LoCascio, following to some degree in Murray Rothbard's footsteps, aims to blow the lid off the "special privilege" of the banking elite. Inspired by Rothbard's _The Mystery of Banking_ and _The Case Against the Fed_, LoCascio seeks to provide the reader with an accessible, easily understood introduction to the sort of jiggery-pokery that currently goes on with our "money."

His effort seems to me to be quite successful, though I may not be the best judge of how a reader completely new to the topic would respond to the book. The exposition is set out in clear and intelligible prose and laced with illustrative dialogues. And his proposals for reform are presented cautiously and with due regard for alternative proposals (LoCascio's own is to freeze the money supply at its current level).

The "special privilege" of the title is sixfold. Under current U.S. law, banks have six "special privileges" that grant them sweeping and pretty scary powers: the power to create money out of thin air (both by the Fed's initial creation of unbacked currency and through individual banks' pyramiding new money on top of it through the "fractional reserve" system); special protection of their assets (any bank whatsoever can be "rescued" whenever the Fed chooses to do so); liability protection (FDIC deposit guarantees that encourage banks to engage in rash speculation); bailout schemes (at taxpayer expense, of course); funny accounting (e.g. booking outstanding loans at their original value instead of at their current value); and secrecy (banks don't have to report certain information even to their stockholders, let alone to the public). Each of these topics gets a chapter-long workout, and LoCascio does a good job of making them clear.

Moreover, his discussion of how things got this way is based in large measure on Milton Friedman's/Anna Jacobson Schwartz's _Monetary History of the United States_, a fine work highly regarded even by non-monetarists (even some Austrians like it). I would have liked to see a reference to Ludwig von Mises in here somewhere, even if just a nod to his _Theory of Money and Credit_, but at any rate LoCascio has selected good sources.

Another feature worth noting is LoCascio's insistence that banks' special privileges are a _moral_ problem -- that lending out multiples of demand deposits is a kind of fraud. (This feature has its good and bad points; on the one hand, it's nice to see the ethical question raised, but on the other hand I'm not sure LoCascio adequately explains _why_ it's wrong.)

On the whole LoCascio's presentation is thorough and even gripping, and he has a knack for grabbing the reader with the most telling points up front: for example, that the purchasing power of the dollar in 1937 was just about what it had been in 1802, whereas today's dollar is by comparison worth about eight cents. This fact appears on page eight and sets the reader asking exactly the question loCascio wants to answer: how in the world did this _happen_?

LoCascio's hope is to help prevent a financial disaster by informing the ordinary citizen about these "special privileges" and their ill economic effects. One way of helping him to succeed in that aim is to read this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Mainstream economics fails to grasp the specific nature of money. It is seen either as a ‘neutral veil’ over the operation of the ‘real’ economy or alternatively as a ‘thing’ – a special commodity.

In this important new book, Geoffrey Ingham draws on neglected traditions in the social sciences to develop a theory of the ‘social relation’ of money. Money consists in socially and politically constructed ‘promises to pay’. This approach is then applied to a range of important historical and analytical questions. The historical origins of money, the ‘cashless’ monetary systems of the ancient Near Eastern empires, the pre-capitalist coinage systems of Greece and Rome, and the emergence of capitalist credit-money are all given new interpretations. Capitalism’s distinctiveness is to befound in the social structure – comprising complex linkages between firms, banks and states – by which private debts are routinely ‘monetized’. Monetary disorders – inflation, deflation, collapse of currencies – are the result of disruptions of, or the inability to sustain, these credit-debt relations. Finally, this theory of money’s ‘nature’ is used to clarify confusions in the recent debates on the emergence of new ‘forms’ and ‘spaces’ of money – global electronic money, local exchange trading schemes, the euro. ... Read more

Book Description

Intellectual developments pioneered by scholastic natural philosophers of the fourteenth century constituted a critical stage in the emergence of scientific thought. Beneath these technical developments lay a profound reconceptualization of nature. The purpose of this book is to analyze the components of this reconceptualization, and to speculate on the influences that shaped it. It argues that the transformation of the conceptual model of the natural world c. 1260-1380 was strongly influenced by the rapid monetization of European society during the same period. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Good scholarship, interesting read.
Intellectual historians have traditionally done a bad job at making connections between thinkers' thoughts and thinkers' environments. Kaye succeeds by pointing out economy's influence on philosphy. I am convinced. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Money, come back!
This is JKG holding forth on that most perennially fascinating of topics. The subtitle ("Whence it Came, Where it Went") may bear a relation to the question on everybody's mind during the early and mid-seventies: why is our money behaving so badly?

"In the twenty years before the founding of the [Federal Reserve] System there were 1748 bank suspensions; in the twenty years after it ended the anarchy of unstable private banking, there were 15,502."(p144)

"...the Democrats...could authorize it [the central bank] without being suspected of evil."(p239)

"...the [German] inflation of 1923, with its euthanasia of the "rentier" class...had almost certainly a far greater [than the 1945 inflation] effect on relative wealth. ...The loss of assets makes a deep impression on an impressionable class of people. The loss of jobs is accepted more philosophically."(p303/304)

"... the higher oil price [in 1973] was considered highly inflationary ... in fact, it was deflationary ... the revenues... accumulated in unspent balances. Thus they represented a withdrawal from current purchasing power..."(p363) (The rest of the paragraph is relevant. The basic point is that the oil producers took money out of circulation, since they made it far faster than they could spend it.)"

And the piece de resistence: "To see economic policy as a problem of choice between rival ideologies is the greatest error of our time."(p368)

MONEY

OK, do I have your attention? Well, this book will not demystify money - like love it is resistant to that, but like love we can't let it go. And its progress through our culture is a fascination, attended by hopes, frauds, inventions, and, not least, desperate invocations.

Galbraith is a writer of enormous wit, intelligence, learning, and sympathy. But he is, of course, a liberal, so to many anything he says will be suspected as not arising out of a proper deference to the efficacy of pure market forces. Just as daunting, his strong, ironical style requires a neophyte a few pages to adjust to syntax shock. Once comfortable with the language, though, one can sit back and enjoy the colorful cavalcade of rogues and fools, madmen and prophets, as they invent and wreck institutions, impoverish whole nations, and pay for wars with worthless paper.

A Harvard economist, a former ambassador, and a leading Keynesian in the Roosevelt administration, John Kenneth Galbraith is at home in the twentieth century's public life as few others are, and has a firm intellectual grasp of his sometimes slippery subject. This book is a witty, but intellectually serious, history of a concept absolutely central to what we are pleased to call modern life, and how it has grown and changed from exchanging pieces of something shiny to now encompass powerful banks, puzzling foreign exchange markets, and tottering Ponzi schemes. Vast frauds separated by centuries appeal to the same base motives and use the same crude stratagems to separate us from our bit of money in hopes we'll get more. With money, like love, it seems we will never learn. But there is much enjoyment in the lessons, anyway.

It's about time banks were explained Foolishly
Galbraith explains banks & money as wittily as the Motley Fool demystifies stocks & Wall Street. Too bad Galbraith was way ahead of his time. Too bad it is out-of-print. Please bring "Money..." back ASAP. ... Read more

Book Description

What is spiritual about capitalism? Wall Street veterans Peter Ressler and Monika Mitchell Ressler give us a practical guidebook that explains how to use our pursuit of profit to enhance our spiritual growth. Seven simple yet profound lessons that will change the way you think about money. Whether on Wall Street or Main Street, whether you are a millionaire or working for minimum wage, Spiritual Capitalism: What the FDNY Taught Wall Street About Money offers you a powerful blueprint to a new understanding of the pursuit of profit. From the cutthroat world of Wall Street comes a surprising new voice of wisdom.Using their own experiences as Wall Street headhunters, Peter and Monika shatter the illusion that business is impersonal. They expose traditional survival-of-the-fittest capitalism as an ineffective relic of the past. In its place, Peter and Monika show us how to turn greed into compassion and exploitation into service. In the process of transforming the ordinary practice of capitalism, we transform ourselves. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best Business Book of the Decade!!!
IF YOU ARE AN EMPLOYEE OR EMPLOYER YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK

This is far and away the best business book I have ever read.I was skeptical at first, as I do not consider myself to be overly spiritual... In fact I am a pure capitalist!I received this book for Christmas and figured I would read a few pages to see what it was about.A couple hours later I had read the entire book.

This book is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to make more money by slightly changing your outlook on what role you play in a bigger picture.The book clearly shows how you can make more money, be more satisfied, and help others do the same.It is not a bunch of spiritual theory that is based on socialistic ideals.In fact it is quite the contrary.It demonstrates how to be a better capitalist and the authors use real life examples to demonstrate their points.Further, the steps outlined in the book are simple to apply to your REAL LIFE and do not require any deep spiritual soul searching.They make sense immediately and are easy to see how they would work for you whether you are a wall street hotshot or a local plumber.

I intend to start using the lessons learned in the book on Monday when I return to work.The authors have truly written a business book that can help make a positive change in every reader's life.I highly recommend this book to anyone who works in any capacity. ... Read more

Book Description

As member-owned savings and loans institutions. credit unions are a rapidly growing worldwide phenomenon. Based upon empirical studies of various credit union industries, this comprehensive book examines the changing role of credit unions and uncovers the future strategic development issues facing them, whether they are in the US, UK, Asia, Africa or the emerging markets of Eastern Europe. The dynamics and behaviour of different credit union industries provide the backdrop to detailed consideration of key operational issues such as membership growth, product diversification, shared services, and credit union management. The Strategic Development of Credit Unions also provides a comparative framework for assessing the performance of credit unions as increasingly key providers of financial services and includes:

• the historical development of credit unions
• the prudential and regulatory requirements governing credit union operations
• US credit unions as a demonstration effect of development issues
• in-depth empirical study of the UK credit union industry
• emerging credit union industries in Eastern Europe and the Third World
• the strategic development agenda for credit unions

Book Description

Focusing on how the President and the Senate influence monetary policy by appointing Federal Reserve Board members, this book answers three questions about the appointment process and its effects. First, do politicians influence monetary policy via Federal Reserve appointments?Second, who influences the process--only the President or the President and the Senate?Third, how is the structure of the Federal Reserve appointment process explained?The study extends the analysis of the Federal Reserve Board to the European Central bank. ... Read more